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This map traces the course of the Vrishabhavathi River through Bengaluru and Ramanagara districts within the larger Arkavathi basin. Today, the river carries a significant portion of Bengaluru’s waste & wastewater. As it flows downstream, it transfers pollution into the Arkavathi, extending impacts into agricultural landscapes and ultimately the Cauvery basin. It shows how urban waste is systematically moved downstream rather than addressed at source.
Click the image below to load the map
Why the Map matters
This map makes visible a critical but often overlooked reality: Bengaluru’s pollution does not remain within the city. It is exported through its rivers, turning downstream ecosystems and communities into recipients of urban waste.
What the Map shows
🌊 River system, hydrology & water infrastructure
- ~69 km course from Sankey Tank to Arkavathi confluence
- River kilometre markings and elevation profile
- Complete river drainage network (streams and lakes)
- Byramangala Dam and Suvarnamukhi anicut
- Dam command areas
💧 Lakes, reservoirs & tank system
- 531 lakes mapped across the basin
- Lakes within and outside BBMP jurisdiction
- Ownership and administrative control (BBMP, Minor Irrigation, etc.)
- Lake area and storage capacity (selected lakes)
- Government-developed (engineered/rejuvenated) lakes
- Encroached lakes
- Extinct / lost lakes and current land use
- Recorded fish-kill incidents
🏙️ Administrative context
- BBMP / Greater Bengaluru Area, Bengaluru Urban, Ramanagara boundaries
- Major transport corridors (Mysore Road, Kanakapura Road, NICE Road)
🚰 Sewage & wastewater infrastructure
- Major BWSSB sewage treatment plants (STPs)
- BBMP lake-side STPs
- Tertiary sewage treatment plant
🏭 Industrial pollution sources
- Peenya, Kumbalgodu, Bidadi, Harohalli clusters
- Additional pockets (Bapujinagara, Nayandahalli)
- Common effluent treatment plants (CETPs)
- Hazardous waste landfills
- Connectivity between industrial activity and the river
⛏️ Other anthropogenic stressors
- Open-pit quarries and impacts on water bodies
- Hydropower installations within the basin
📊 Monitoring & regulation
- KSPCB water quality monitoring locations
- Monitoring points along tributary streams
🌱 Groundwater & ecological context
- Groundwater status (overexploited / critical taluks)
- State forests, reserve forests, minor forests, and national parks
This spatial understanding did not emerge from datasets alone—it was built through sustained fieldwork, engagement, and the need to make the river’s pollution legible.
Travelling across the basin, we began to understand what the river carries—where it comes from, where it flows, and who it affects. To communicate this to citizens, bureaucrats, and policymakers, we needed spatial representation: a map that placed industries, cities, quarries, reservoirs, command areas, hydropower installations, and other human interventions within the river’s hydrological context.
Our first attempt was a hand-drawn map, which we carried to government meetings and Lokayukta proceedings. It was there that its significance became clear. At the time, nearly 200 lake pollution cases—including Byramangala—were being heard in isolation, without hydrological context. When we presented Byramangala within the Vrishabhavathi basin, pollution sources and pathways became immediately legible. The Lokayukta subsequently directed that a map of Bengaluru’s lakes be displayed in court as a standing reference.
Recognising how effectively the map communicated what reports alone could not, we digitised it. With the development of GIS capability, it has since evolved into a comprehensive, one-of-a-kind basin-scale map. It now serves as a foundational reference for analysis, engagement, and governance discussions on the river— including this report.
- Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB)
- Minor Irrigation Department
- Google Earth,Open Street Map
- Survey of India toposheets
- Field observations and compiled datasets
- Indiawris.com
Originally developed as part of earlier work on Paani.earth ; adapted and archived under Mapping Malnad.